Phone for Olandra!

I had the above person in mind while doing this. My group was initially doing about a girl who likes Hello Kitty and is basically an "Ah Lian" who frequents Orchard Road. I decided to add lots of twist to the profile and out comes Olandra!

Olandra Tan, 21 years old, singer/entertainer at Modestro Pub

Olandra Tan graduated from Institute of Technical Education College Central with a NITEC in Service Skills (Retail) 2 years ago and is now working as a full time singer in Modestro Pub. The regulars in the pub would know her as the tall and pretty red haired lady with an angelic voice.

She is a single child who lives with her mother and grandmother in a 3 room HBD flat in Woodlands. Her parents divorced when she was 15 and since then her interests in studies had dropped and would skip school to sing KTV with her friends.

Olandra was once a rebel with a fierce personality. She would argue over the slightest things and had been involved in fights which resulted from staring incidents. But on the inside she was a lonely soul, yearning for attention from her peers and her father. Before the divorce, her father doted on her very much and had encouraged her to be a singer. But during the divorce, her father lost custody and would only be allowed to see her once a week. Olandra’s mother is strongly against her to sing and wanted her to pursue a proper education. As an act of rebellion, Olandra deliberately failed her N levels to disappoint her mother.

Yet the turning point came when 4 years ago her father passed away. Deeply grieved, she vowed to respect her father’s wish to become an aspiring singer one day. In ITE, she was no longer the teenage delinquent, but a keen learner. Her modules had taught her how to groom herself to look professional and to speak proper English and Mandarin. She worked hard and became one of the best students in her course.

Just before graduation, she and her friends went to Modestro Pub to chill out. There was a singing session where anyone in the audience could choose a song and sing with the complement of the live band. Olandra took up the microphone and began to sing, and impressed the audiences. The manager was also very impressed and requested Olandra to be a regular singer and entertainer for his pub. From then on, Olandra’s performance became a regular hit in the pub.

Olandra now exhumes flair of confidence and eloquence. Expatriates in the pub have been coming regularly just to see her sing. After performances she would often come down and chat with them with her eloquent English. There were nights where her performances were so well received that she received tips that amounted more than her regular monthly salary. But Olandra aspires to sing on a bigger stage one day, thus she has been preparing for the next Singapore Idol competition. She idolized a Taiwanese singer called Zhang Hui Mei (A-mei), as this popular singer also started out singing from a pub.

On her off days, Olandra would enjoy shopping with her friends. Pink is her favorite colour and would often be spotted in pink overalls. Her favorite hairstylist is Reds Hair Salon and she chose to dye her hair red simply because of her liking for the salon. She still enjoys a good karaoke session with her friends and would pick up songs from her idol A-mei.

Olandra likes to swim to keep herself in shape. Swimming would also remind her of her late father where he would often bring her to the neighborhood swimming complex and taught her how to swim. Also interestingly it was her father who taught her how to hold her breath and he believed it was one method to improve her singing technique. Olandra would sometimes shed a tear or two as she missed her father a lot, but she would often keep a smile and told herself that she did what she could to make her father proud.

Olandra is currently single even though she has lots of suitors who are regulars in the pub. She treats her work professionally and the most she would do in pub would be to have social conversations with the patrons. She would reject any advances made towards her and would turn down monetary offers in exchange for an indecent proposal. Olandra’s relationship with her mother has improved as she has learnt to be forgiving and understanding and cherishes what she has around her. Her mother also has accepted Olandra as an accomplished singer and hopes to see her making it big in the entertainment scene one day.

Four Pleasure Analysis of Olandra

Physio-pleasure:

• Olandra swims regularly and is a good way of keeping herself in shape. She does not want to have broad shoulders though thus she doesn’t swim too intensively.
  
• As a performer she is particular about her overall appearance and spends time and money on her hair. She would choose clothes and accessories which would be aesthetically pleasing to the patrons in the pub. She believes in looking professional even while singing, she would not choose clothes which are too revealing, but rather make her look elegant and sophisticated- Need Pleasure
• But off work, anything goes. She likes pink very much and would believes that pink clothes are forms of escapism to a lost teenage year, where it would have been better and more carefree.
• She would probably like a good session of spa to relax and find inspiration in her singing. - Appreciation Pleasure

Socio-pleasure:

• She would like to spend time with her mother and grandmother during her off-days, as they are the only family that she has now. - Needs Pleasure
  
• As her work is at night, she seldom has time for her friends who would be working while she rests at home. Her social circle would probably be limited to the live band members and staffs in Modestro. As such she feels that the band is like a second family and would do all sorts of activities together. - Needs Pleasure
  
• She would probably receive lots of contacts from her patrons, but the relationship is mostly kept as acquaintances. She does however likes the attention given upon her singing. - Appreciation Pleasure
  

Psycho-pleasure:

• She likes reading entertainment magazines to keep herself updated of the entertainment scene. A sense of satisfaction would be derived when she knows she has the best info among her peers - Appreciation Pleasure
• She likes surfing the web, emails and online chats and see if anyone talks about her or would want to talk to her. From online sources she would also know how popular her pub is - Appreciation Pleasure
  
• She would tape down episodes of American Idol and list down what the judges say about the contestants. She practices very hard to be the next Singapore Idol or Project Superstar. - Can be both needs and appreciation pleasure
  

Ideo-pleasure:

• Olandra is not exactly an ambitious by nature, but she is driven by her love for her late father and would excel to make her father look proud.
  
• She hopes to find a husband that would be as good as her father. But so far most of her suitors are superficial according to her.
• Coming from a background where once she felt lonely and uncertain, she believes in helping out her friends whenever she can, to overcome fears and loneliness in life.

Based on the above information, I would propose the product specifications for Olandra’s handphone:

Style

• Chic and elegant, just the right size for her hand.
• Pink cover as she loves pink and looking at pink soothes her mind.
• Buttons can be easily pressed and illuminated as she works late into the night and might feel tired. Also to enable her to dial for a cab fast.
• Phone which fits snugly into her purse or bag.
  

Functions

• Good calendar function to keep her appointments, rehearsals and performances in schedule.
• At least 2.5 or 3G technology so that she can surf for entertainment news.
• At least 2.0 megapixel camera to take photos after performance sessions.
• Lots of internal memory space as she needs to keep lots of contacts and photos in her phone and would prefer to have a lag free phone.
• Up to 6 hours of battery life so that she will not miss an important call.
• Phone lock function as the place she works at would have lots of strangers coming in and out, and would not want anyone to look into her private messages.
  

The LG KG800 Pink Chocolate phone would probably be the closest specs.

Pleasure with Handheld Gaming

Alright, another post on video games. But hey, it's my passion and interest after all! And it's one of the products that I keep in touch with very often. A few assumptions have to be made before going on with the review:

1. The products are assumed to be tested on the same time, at the present moment. Every product that came out were "new" and fashionable when it was first launched. What you felt about a new product now could be the same as what you have felt when you find a similar product years ago.

2. The products are assumed to be fully functional while being tested. That means even when a product has been out for a long time, we assume that that product we're testing is still working at its optimum condition.

So yup without further ado, let me present to you the review of 3 handheld console game systems, comparing the visceral, behavioral and reflective sense of things.

Product 1: Nintendo Gameboy (1989 Original Version):


The grandfather of all handheld game consoles which use the catridge packs. Prior to the gameboy, handheld gaming was limited to electronic games which consist of devices which is designed to play only one game, using liquid crystal display. The Nintendo Game and Watch series are the popular handheld electronic games of the 1980s. (For more info check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_electronic_game , but we shall now focus on the Gameboy)

The popular puzzle game Tetris was shipped along with the Gameboy and it was the defining game that made the Gameboy globally popular. It was also one of the longest surviving handheld console of its time, lasting almost 13 years before it was finally overtaken by newer handheld game consoles. Nevertheless let us review the Gameboy now and see what experiences it would bring us:

Visceral:

The design looks blocky and unappealing. The dot matrix screen look primitive. But the Gameboy does possess a nostalgic look, where somehow the design instantly reminds one of the late 1980s and early 1990s where technology was more about functionality than form. The plain control interface showed that it was designed to be solely as a gaming machine. (There were add-ons such as the gameboy camera later in the mid-90s, but those devices failed to impress the market)

Behavioral (while playing tetris):

The controls are simple and intuitive. Sound is expected to be sub-par by today's standards. Screen has no backlight, thus you have to find a good spot with ample lighting to play the game. Colors are limited to greyscale display.

Reflective:

Playing the Gameboy now would lead to a feel of nostalgia, of the classic Nintendo 8-bit era. Games then were more focused on addictive gameplay, rather than flashy graphics. But the Gameboy feels outdated, unsophisticated and obsolete, and seems that only puzzle games are worth playing on the Gameboy. It is also associated to children as there was a period where the Gameboy was popular solely due to Pokemon.

Product 2: Nintendo DS

(For simulated product testing you can try this: http://www.warioware.biz/touched/launch/index.html )

DS can stand for "Dual Screen," and Developers' System, from Nintendo's belief that the system "gives game creators brand new tools which will lead to more innovative games for the world's players." First released in 2004, the DS is innovative in a sense that it provided input using a stylus, a first for handheld console gaming, and a microphone that allows limited voice control in some games. How does it fair according to the exprience rating?

Visceral:

Sleek and stylish; the dual screen is a unique refreshing change from a single screen display.

Behavioral (while playing Wario touched!):

Using the stylus to control is unique. But switching from stylus to gamepad is cumbersome at times.

Graphics are bright and colourful. Sound is catchy and chirpy. Controls are intuitive and simple. Had fun exploring the microphone function where for some games, you need to blow into the microphone to push the objects.

Reflective:

Innovative gameplay, but right now most of the good games come solely from Nintendo. Not exactly mainstream type of console.

Product 3: Playstation Portable

Among the 3 this would have been known by many who are reading this blog. The PSP is currently the most popular handheld console, but is it really the best?

Visceral:

Looks sophisticated. Sleek and high performance hand held console.

Behavioral (While playing Ridge Racers) :

Check out what Amirul said in his blog about the PSP. The PSP seems to be designed for people with small hands. Alot of buttons, but control wise it's not that comfortable as both the DS or even the Gameboy.

Graphics are definitely the best in PSP, but somehow there's lag experienced while the game gets too intensive. Soundwise it's the superior of the 3.

The PSP is also capable of playing video recordings and MP3. Memory card serves to be useful in storing saved games and multimedia.

Reflective:

The PSP is the mainstream choice. It is easier to find another person having a PSP. I would probably buy a PSP out of the 3 choices...

Wait a minute... didn't I just say about the controls and the lagginess being below from DS and Gameboy? Hmm... Network effect or lock-in effect somehow plays a part too. Even though some "bad designs" are made, if it was able to gather enough consumers to use them, it will form strong lock-in. The QWERTY keyboard is a good example of a bad design that is still popular. Despite the fact that the keyboard was made to slow down typing speed of typewriters, modern day computers still follow the exact same layout of a type writer!

Warming up to... a bad design?

What a way to kickstart this module... by coming up with a baaadd design! Haha.. but no matter, I shall jump straight into action... As I'm a true blue gamer at heart my example will be taken from the world of video gaming...

Many of us probably know Nintendo as the makers of great games and consoles like Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, The Nintendo Gameboy, and soon to be coming Nintendo Wii... but among all these unforgettable game play experiences is one forgettable gadget that ... nicely put is ahead of its time when it comes out, but others wish it never come to light...

presenting to you the Nintendo Virtual Boy:




Looks very futuristic eh? Until you realise you got to put this thing onto your head for hours while staring only the colours red and black! (Ooo it matches the colour of the console.. bah!)



For those who are into video gaming you would perhaps marvel at the nice looking controller and the "promise" of true 3D graphics on a 32-bit system. But how are the games like? Look below:



Erm, true 3D graphics?? And no the colours are not edited... this is exactly what you see in game. And how do you play it?



Besides looking incredibly geeky, you probably get a bad headache looking into the deep "vortex" of red and black, strapping on the "portable" console that weighs 2 pounds... and people having more fun watching you.... er.... having fun.

Alot of info can be accessed via this website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Virtual_Boy

From this site I'll pick out the points that answers the assignment questions:

The console was designed by Gunpei Yokoi, inventor of the Game & Watch and Game Boy handhelds, as well as the Metroid franchise. While compact and seemingly portable, Virtual Boy was not intended to replace the Game Boy in Nintendo's product line, as use of the system requires a steady surface, and completely blocks the player's peripheral vision. According to David Sheff's book Game Over, Gunpei never actually had intended for the console to be released in its present form. However, Nintendo had grown impatient with the amount of time that he had taken with the project. It wanted to focus on the Nintendo 64, and quickly rushed the Virtual Boy to market.

Hype surrounding the device before its release included public musings by Nintendo that the device might resemble a gun set vertical, projecting a 3D image in the air above it. The actual device was considered a disappointment compared to this description when it arrived.

'...the Virtual Boy produced very impressive 3-D effects, although the monochromatic graphic style proved to limit the appeal of the visuals.' - (NOA website) [1]

The Virtual Boy was a flop in the marketplace, for several reasons:

• To fill in for the long delay in the development of the Nintendo 64, it was pushed to market before it was ready. Not only was it rushed out the door, but the public was unwilling to spend so much money on what they saw as a stopgap videogame system, especially knowing the Nintendo 64 was coming shortly.
  
• It was marketed as a portable system, but it was not as portable as gamers thought it should be. Due to its size and weight, the Virtual Boy was nearly impossible to use while in motion, and doing so could cause damage to the unit.
  
• It was considered too expensive, with a $180 initial price.
  
• The console's box and manual warned that the display could cause eyestrain and eye problems, especially for those under 7 years of age. Despite having been added primarily for liability reasons, the warnings frightened away potential buyers. Some that did buy it suffered from headaches or even seizures from short times spent playing games on the machine.
  
• Many believed there was a poor selection of games available at launch, and very few software developers wanted to invest time and money in such a new, unproven gaming system. This led to a circular supply-and-demand problem and resulted in a system with few games available. In total only 22 titles were available between the North American and Japanese markets.

• Additionally, there were few plans for any flagship titles (such as Metroid, Zelda, or Star Fox) or popular third party titles (such as Final Fantasy or other Squaresoft games) to be released.

• Other game problems were related to the format of the console itself, which did not seem especially suited for certain types of games, giving players the impression that it was a rather limited system.
  
• The base of the system could not be adjusted vertically. This meant that the system has to be placed on a table to play (which could be uncomfortable) or that users had to lie down to use it.

• The base was also somewhat flimsy and replacement parts were not very common.
  Due to the nature of the Virtual Boy system, other players could not watch, which took away the social aspect of gaming. A multiplayer option was in the works, via a cable that would hook two units together, but the product failed before such an addition could be made.
  
• Because of its failure in the Japanese and American markets, the console was never released in Australia or Europe. This contributed to a supply-and-demand problem (undersupply) for Nintendo products (especially Super Famicom and SNES games) in the middle of the 1990s that existed mainly due to continuous delays of the Nintendo 64.
  
• The failure of the Virtual Boy was regarded by many as the catalyst that led to Gunpei being driven from Nintendo. According to Game Over, the company laid the blame for the machine's faults directly on the creator.

I think this assignment is more about my own reaction. I am fortunate (or unfortunate? depending on perspective... ) enough to try out this console during its short tenure in Singapore. Before I got to know how the gameplay was, I admit that it looked futuristic and worth trying. But it failed terrribly in its promise on graphics and sound is horrid, if you even call stereo bleeps and chimes as sound. It somehow made me not touch anything Nintendo for quite some time, until recently where attempts for innovation are once again made via the Nintendo Wii, one of the next gen console games which the swerving and natural moving of the controllers control in-game characters. The pictures alone that I posted probably shows why it was such a flop.